Monthly Archives: July 2016

This week, the podcast is rocked by the events of Re:Zero 15, which were so traumatizing we needed to watch Sweetness and Lightning over and over again to remind ourselves that there is still good in the world. Other topics, besides the End of Evangelion-esque gorefest that Subaru & co. just pulled on us, include an Amanchu! girl’s amazing Creepy Yotsuba Face, relieving oneself of gas in the face of a loli ghost, the correct pronunciation of “ufotable,” and the theory that Bananya is not a charming story of cats who live in banana skins, but a psychological profile of a shattered mind.

Oh, and we predict the end of Berserk, just in case you were curious. Everyone can stop reading the manga now.

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Well, I was wrong: I called the previous quarterfinal match for Megumi, only it was Ryo’s name that got written down with the Giant Brush of Gastronomic Victory. I really felt like the show was telegraphing that Ryo’s strong flavors were too palette-fatiguing and Megumi’s dish was more inviting to actually eat, but I guess his seafood ramen was just that good, overbearing or not. Besides, it was a big deal for Megumi to make it to the quarterfinals in the first place, so even though she got knocked out of the contest, the fact that she earned the respect of her peers makes it a net victory for her.

The kids watching in the peanut gallery note that Heihachi did not go shirtless for Megumi’s dish the way he did for Ryo’s, meaning they should have predicted who was going to win. However, in a scene I’m not sure I fully understand, Heihachi excuses himself to the bathroom and thinks about what an amazing cook Megumi is becoming; he took his shirt off for her deep down in his heart, or something like that.

The main event for this episode is the match between Hisako, Erina’s uptight secretary who specializes in medicinal food, and Hayama, the dude who is all about spices. They’re facing off in Battle Hamburger, which is interesting because it doesn’t seem to play to either of their particular strengths. Come to think of it though, very little would really play to Hisako’s strengths in this competition; the person who cooks with health as their primary goal is always at a disadvantage when the contest is being judged solely on taste and texture. It’s not that healthy food can’t be tasty, but when your goal is to make something as tasty as humanly possible, that doesn’t lend itself to using ingredients that also aid digestion and such.

Hey good luck Secretary-chan, hope you have a good recip OMG SHE CUT ITS HEAD OFF

In any case, Hisako’s first association when someone says “hamburger” must be “callously butcher a live turtle on the spot,” because that’s what she does. I thought I was totally on Hisako’s side in this bout, but I think I started rooting for her to lose once she cut the turtle’s head off. I mean…ok, I’m not a vegetarian, so I’m probably a hypocrite for expressing distaste at an animal being killed for food, but dammit, turtles are just so darned cute.

Is it so wrong that I’m okay with cows and lambs being killed for meat, but turtles are where I draw the line? Besides, not only does she kill it, she DRAINS ITS BLOOD, like some kind of sick Rachel Ray-inspired vampire, and uses the fresh blood to pump up the flavor of her hamburger patties. She also adds a bunch of medicinal herbs, so this Turtle Murder Burger probably cleans up congestion, gout and erectile dysfunction (not that I’m implying anything about Heihachi).

She also uses Asian-style soft steamed buns, which seems really weird, if not quite offensive to my western palette. I don’t have anything against steamed buns, it just seems like the doughiness would be a really strange combination with a meat patty. The judges appreciate the fact that her turtle-and-pork concoction gives them all a healthy glow (and brings out a lot of umami, seriously enough with the umami quotient already), and it seems like Hisako has met the challenge head-on.

We learn via flashback that Hisako is obsessed with Erina…well, we knew that already, but we learn just HOW obsessed Hisako is with Erina. Her goal in her cooking is to always stay just a few steps behind Erina, always in reach of her Glorious God Tongue…it’s like they were going for some lesbian subtext, then said “you know what? Fuck it,” and went with full-on lesbian text instead. Good for them, I think.

Thank you, Food Wars! for giving us a helpful diagram illustrating what a hamburger is. It would be terribly inconvenient if anyone was confused.

But hark, Hayama the Cold-Hearted Spice Boy has yet to present his burger! Not only does he fill the whole auditorium with yellow fumes from his abundant spices (Team Instinct shout out?) he makes a gyro-inspired burger, using seasoned Turkish lamb meat and yogurt sauce and pita and…waitaminute. That’s not even a “gyro-inspired burger,” that’s a gyro, straight up. I guess the fact that the meat is in the form of a patty instead of strips kind of pushes it slightly over to burger territory, but seriously, the flavor profile is 100% gyro.

This would put me in an ethical quandry as a judge, because while gyros are absolutely delicious and one of my favorite things to eat, they are not hamburgers; we know this because when you go to a Greek or Turkish restaurant, “gyro” and “hamburger” are always listed as separate menu items. I mean, maybe you’ve gone to some weird hellhole that has a “Gyroburger” on the menu, but it’s not my problem if your local restaurants are terrible.

Speaking of which, I would like to go out to Greek restaurants way more often than I do, but all the ones in my neighborhood have a severe parking shortage. How am I supposed to stuff myself full of delicious donor meat, grape leaves and spanakopita if I have nowhere to park? Do you expect me to pay for a taxi, like some kind of fancy lady? But just think of a delicious gyro, that delectable, mouth-wateringly salty seasoned lamb meat, balanced by the refreshing tang of fresh yogurt sauce, accompanied by crisp, fresh greens and delicately sweet tomatoes, all offset by the contrasting textures of crunchy bread, the oven-baked pita imparting a subtle, earthy aroma along with a gentle heartiness…..

What is this? DELICIOUS!

But it’s not a hamburger! NOT A HAMBURGER AT ALL!!!!!

…ahem. Anyway, I really like gyros, but I think Hayama should have been disqualified for making the wrong food. Unfortunately, the judges are still on their insane umami-worshipping kick, and the pickling agent that Hayama used as a topping does more to enhance the (god-forsaken) umami of his burger than the ginger Hisako used, so he wins. Hayama tells Hisako that she can’t beat him while she keeps aiming for second place, and he’s probably right, but I still think he cheated and is pretty much a bad guy.

Speaking of bad guys, this episode also introduces Subaru, whose shtick is that he looks like a big punk, but he’s actually extremely detail-oriented. Clearly he’s the villain of this arc, because he insults Aldini’s little brother Isami and, err, spits out his gum on Aldini’s special knife. Err, who does that? Even in Food Wars!, who does that?

This was the only screenshot featuring Subaru I could bring myself to take. Normally he has some dark stuff on his face that I think is supposed to mean he’s always in shadow, but it mostly looks like he just came out of a coal mine.

The last thing we learn is that the quarterfinal match between Aldini and Subaru has been declared a Shokugeki, or official food duel; I think we’re supposed to infer that Aldini was so pissed about the insult to his brother’s cooking skills that he upped the stakes, but personally, I think he’s more upset about Subaru messing with his prized knife.

Does the loser of a Shokugeki get expelled from the school? It’s been a while since I watched the first season and I don’t remember exactly how the rules for a Shokugeki differ from any other match, but if the loser gets kicked out of Totsuki, I have a feeling Aldini is about to be toast; they did not introduce Subaru with all this fanfare for him to lose in the quarterfinals.

Next episode: One character I really don’t like squares off against a character I don’t really care much for one way or the other. I’ll probably spend the whole recap talking about how much I like fried shrimp with tartar sauce or something.

I probably should have put this screenshot up higher, but let’s be honest: it’s better without context.

This time around, we’re dealing with a weird kind of reverse-disappointment; we sort of wanted all the summer anime to be bad so we’d have plenty of free time to catch up on our anime backlogs, but nooooo, too much damn anime had to go out of it’s way to be funny and interesting and charming and stuff. Now we’re really into Sweetness and Lightning and Cheer Boys and Mononokean and stuff, and when are our My Anime LIst pages finally going to be up to snuff? Not this season, that’s for sure.

Meanwhile, Sal is understandably concerned about Bananya’s desire to be eaten, Lifesong has had it with anime characters shouting at each other for no real reason, and we’re all pretty flummoxed by just who First Love Monster is supposed to be targeted at. Maybe the show is like the anime equivalent of the Duck-Billed Platypus; though we can’t imagine why it exists, we must humbly accept that it does. There are many things in this world that are simply beyond our ken.

SHOW NOTES:

00:00:34 General Otaku Chat: Is Crunchyroll going to eat Funimation’s lunch now that they’re in the home-release game? Can we handle a Big Order dub?

I didn’t mention it on the show because it wasn’t confirmed at the time we recorded, but Otakusphere Weekly is now available on iTunes. It will be probably become available on other popular podcast-listening services as soon as I figure out what all the kids are using these days. Let us know in the comments if there’s somewhere you’d like the show to be listed, and we’ll get on it.

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Alderamin on the Sky starts off by making it clear that its protagonist has little desire to get himself involved with the military. Yet somehow, Ikta finds himself front and center in a dangerous situation– protecting an imperial princess, no less– and that’s only the beginning of his troubles.

I find myself drawn in by how straightforward and honest these first two episodes were. We’re told by the end of the first episode that Ikta will become a famous general; this may sound like a boring way to introduce the story (and on paper, maybe it is), but the magic was in the details. I came away from episode two feeling like I knew exactly what kind of story this anime wants to tell.

Ikta knows why you lost your chess match without viewing the board and looks down on you for thinking chess is a valuable skill.

Look Elsewhere For Simple Wish Fulfillment

Competence is a double-edged sword with any fictional character. I was a bit worried that Ikta would play too far into the typical wish-fulfillment nonsense that many light novel protagonists fall into, but so far, I like the way he’s presented here. Ikta is competent, but politically powerless. Yattori, the series heroine, keeps him grounded while coming across as a strong character in her own right.

Ikta has a long bucket list of reasons to want to light the world on fire and watch it burn, and yet, that isn’t what he’s all about. Even this early on, there’s a lot I could say about his personality and attitude, both positive and the negative. For now I’ll stick with the most important thing: I can buy it. Ikta makes sense to me and seems believable inside his universe.

Shouldn’t be taken seriously, or doesn’t want to be taken seriously by design? Yattori knows better.

Alderamin introduced itself, it’s world and characters in a masterful way. Ikta is a lazy womanizer and cynical defeatist, while Yattori is an honorable noble from a prestigious family with a military background. What makes them interesting is that neither of them have much talent at acting their assigned roles.

I already find myself loving the relationship dynamic between Ikta and Yattori; their mutual respect for each other says a lot about both of them. In Ikta’s case, it demonstrates that his defeatist attitude is fueled both by a hatred for his kingdom’s political system and knowledge of how it works. Ikta helps demonstrates Yattori’s position on nobility when she asks his opinion on political issues. It’s also worth mentioning that her original purpose for dragging Ikta into the this whole dilemma was to cheat her ranking on a test for elite officer school…naive, she is not.

Someone has to keep this fool in order and save him from himself.

The Quotable Ikta

Now, cynical attitudes are something I feel are a dime a dozen in light novel stories. Maybe I should be worried about how this could play out down the line, but so far I can’t find much fault with the way Alderamin presents itself. In fact, I find myself agreeing with much of the attitude we’ve seen so far, even jotting down favorite Ikta quotes for future reference.

That feeling when your princess is almost as dumb as a war college graduate.

“Every hero dies from overwork.” manages to express the core of Ikta’s personality, and the use of that line in ep. 2 felt downright tragic. I wonder what the princess hoped to gain by dragging out his past the way she did; it almost seemed like she wanted him to snap. The way she mentioned his parents and mentor was miserable to say the least.

When the princess spoke of her own rotten blood, it left a strong impression: she clearly isn’t much of a fan of the current political system either. I wonder how much she’ll manage to change the status quo before the anime ends– how much power does she really have?

I love the visual storytelling in this scene. Yattori’s reflexes are amazing.

Gender Equality…perhaps?

Speaking of the princess, something that stood out is the position of women in this fantasy world, largely due to Yattori: she’s clearly highly trained and competent at fighting. The fact that no one raises an eyebrow at how strong or scary she is while fighting give us a bit of world building, in classic show-don’t-tell fashion. Her character could only exist in a universe where women are accepted in the role of warriors.

At first glance there seems to be an unusual amount of equality within this fantasy kingdom. The military is okay with both knighting women and with training them to be officers. That creates an interesting contrast with Ikta’s mom’s story, where she was given as a gift to his father from some harem, as you would expect in a society where women are considered property. I’m not sure what the story will do with these disparate elements, if anything, but that only adds to my curiosity.

I get the feeling anyone who can relax in a hammock isn’t all bad in this universe.

Another instant favorite of mine is “What a soldier needs is imagination which allows him to use fragmented information to envision the whole.” I liked the way it took the whole “military strategists are good at chess” trope and changed the nuance. The statement was simple, but valuable: Real strategy is about using your imagination to improvise based off the information you have. I think that is wise life advice in a general sense, military or otherwise.

So far my favorite aspect of this anime is easily Ikta’s relationship with Yattori (Who is rapidly becoming a favorite heroine of mine). Their closeness, despite seemingly different life goals, is charming. I loved the final scene of episode two where they both have a nice moment of understanding.

That feeling when you realize you are going to become a war college graduate yourself.

I’m a bit worried to see this show getting caught up in school antics, but hopefully episode three will ease my fears. I expect Ikta’s hatred of the military to be a central part of the story, but I also expect to see him go above and beyond to back up Yattori when push comes to shove– and it’s interesting just how strongly I feel like I know these characters, after only two episodes.

On another note, I have to compliment the show for its ability to change tone effectively. One moment our characters are relaxing and sharing a nice meal, the next they’re slaughtering some enemy soldiers in appropriately serious fashion. Earlier, in episode one, we smoothly transitioned from silly character introductions to survival mode.

I can’t bring myself to share the image with guy’s poor Care Bear trying to wake him up…

I’ve come to expect anime to be bad at this kind of transition and often enough, I find they don’t even try to make it work. The fact that this anime pulls it off helps make the soldiers in this story feel like proper soldiers; often, even in fairly serious anime, soldiers seem to act more like comedians than warriors, and it can take you out of the story pretty easily.

My New Summer Getaway?

One last thing I want to point out before wrapping up is just how pretty Alderamin is; both the people and the world itself are gorgeous. Ikta’s obsession with relaxing in hammocks fits right into this universe. In fact, instead of pontificating about Alderamin, I find myself wanting to go chill somewhere with a nice breeze. [Okay, but make sure you’re all caught up on anime first–Karen.] Ikta’s obsession with the women in this world, while not exactly commendable, is easy to understand….

Or maybe he just likes getting pushed around?

I have a test I like to give fantasy worlds: Would I want to live there? If not, would I at least want to visit? Most fantasy worlds fail both parts of the test and they do so by design. Ultimately the test is entirely for fun and has no real critical value, but when do we ever let that stop us here at Otakusphere?

Let’s see…I’d rather not live under a monarch, so part one of my test is probably a no. If the sense of equality in the military is found in the every day lives of civilians in this society, that is a strong selling point. I’d need to compare what these magical bear creature things are capable of versus real world science. We know they can’t heal a giant hole in someone’s chest… but well, that guy was probably a goner either way.

Apparently, grabbing faces is simply what people do when they are unsettled by stupid.

The verdict is still out on whether or not this universe is a desirable place to live or not, but I have to admit that it looks like a nice place to visit…you know, provided I could avoid locations that are likely to become war zones, or getting myself drafted into the military. I’ll just have to keep watching until I have enough knowledge of Alderamin‘s intriguing world to safely plan my vacation. [No vacations allowed, we need you on the podcast–Karen]

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Several things stood out in this second episode, but fortunately, the much-maligned art style was not one of them. I guess I must be getting used to it.

At least they smell a little better than the last army he took on.

During the encounter between Guts and the Holy Iron Chain Knights, Guts doesn’t recall having done anything to make a priest arrest him. What I wonder is, had the knights happened to witness Guts fighting animated skeletons (and a large, hungry demonic tree), would they have wanted to arrest him less, or more? Religion didn’t seem so front and center in the 1997 series when compared to this episode, but it makes sense considering the setting of Berserk. It’s too bad Guts didn’t have a reply to the commander’s question about where all the blood came from!

I was a little surprised when she mentioned the countless bodies they found, providing no recognition of the fact that most of them were skeletons. Exactly what was she accusing Guts of?

The knights are lucky (or perhaps, unlucky) that Guts is injured and wiped out after his recent fights. If there’s anyone who could fight his way out of a situation like this one, it’s him, and that would be true even without a bonus elf to provide support.

I really love the way gruesome demonstrations of Guts’ skill are animated. The slow motion and music accompanying Guts’ first display of prowess with his sword really works for me:Guts is in trouble now! Hmm, those four soldiers are lined up pretty nicely….Oh, I guess he CAN use that giant sword after all…

The best part is how Serpico can see the attack coming from a mile away. He’s the only knight not shocked by the outcome of Guts’ exchange with the four soldiers. Throughout the episode, there are several instances where Serpico is portrayed as the most capable member of his unit from behind the scenes. Still, you have to respect Azan for offering to take Guts on right after seeing four of his men simultaneously cut in half. His backstory is pretty unique, but I’m surprised Guts knew the story or cared enough to tell it. Sadly, I am forced to assume that such a chivalrous man will not last long in the world of Berserk; not now that he has encountered Guts and his baggage.

Later, Guts is brought to Farnese’s command tent for questioning. Farnese’s inexperience at command and, in my opinion, lack of competence really shows in this scene. I’d point to the moment when she screams and starts wildly flailing at Guts as a prime example of this, but to be fair, in ye olden times, that was probably considered normal conduct.

Puck’s response to Guts getting flailed, Passion of The Christ style.

Guts doesn’t seem to notice or care that Farnese has been wildly slashing him.

Just when I was starting to hate Farnese for abusing a chained-up Guts, we get a scene where she realizes the error of her ways and decides to whip herself as well in a show of solidarity…or at least, that’s how my mind wants to interpret the scene. Around this time, Puck starts offering commentary on what he witnesses in a way that I find really funny, and I really have to hand it to his voice actor, Kaoru Mizukara, for her delivery here. This part of the episode also marks the beginning of a sequence of several very funny retorts from Guts.

I found Farnese’s inability to see Puck rather interesting considering that, up until now, we had no evidence that anyone was unable to see elves. I guess in the world of Berserk, being a pious religious zealot is far worse than being a thug or a bandit. (Just like in our world! -Karen)

The last scene is perhaps my favorite: Serpico is the only one whose eyes and mind can keep up with Guts; Serpico alone is able to pursue Guts; Just when it seems like Farnese may be rescued….

Serpico learns what is truly terrifying about Guts.

Tune in next week for more fun, multiple-torsos-separated-from-the-body-action! (Or watch Re:Zero, which is kind of doing the same thing lately. -Karen)

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This episode features Battle Ramen, meaning the judges get to say “Umami!” about a million more times, just in case you didn’t get your fill of that during Battle Bento. Now I know umami is a cool flavor and all (and a point of national pride, since it was discovered by a Japanese scientist), but I almost wish the student chefs would start baking cupcakes or something just so everyone would stop going on about the damn umami quotient already.

Just my luck though, if they did hold Battle Cupcakes, someone would make Red Snapper Cupcakes and everyone would be losing their minds about the amount of ‘delicate umami flavor’ in the smoked eel frosting or something. Oh well.

With the bandana-flourish, the flashbacks set Ryo up as a kind of Evil Soma…or at least Slightly Dickish Soma. I don’t care how good his stuffed chicken is, I would not eat at his trashy portside restaurant.

Continuing through the Autumn Elections contest, shy Megumi faces off against Ryo, a scary-looking dude who hails from some non-specified foreign country. Megumi’s storyline is fun, because unlike Soma, she could pretty much lose at any time, making her battles unpredictable. Plus, her very presence in the story is what keeps Soma from being an obnoxious-as-hell lead character; the fact that he recognizes and tries to nurture talent in people who would otherwise blend into the background makes you feel good rooting for him, instead of just shrugging through his constant victories.

In any case, we get some of Ryo’s backstory in this episode; apparently Alice Nakiri befriended him in unspecified-foreign-country during her “I will travel the world to learn the skills to defeat Erina!” phase. She thinks of Ryo as something of an underling, but now that Ryo is coming into his own– or perhaps, because Alice finally lost– he thinks he’s the better cook between the two of them. Interestingly, even after Ryo insults Alice’s cooking, she’s still talking up Ryo to the other cooks in the stands. I reckon that if she plans to get him back for his attitude at all, it will be done in private, and it will be vicious.

Ryo’s whole attitude is that Food is A Battlefield, and one must brandish strong flavors to destroy their opponents, and you know…I want to say that his philosophy is stupid, for obvious reasons, but look at the state of food television: Top Chef, Iron Chef America, Chopped, Cutthroat Kitchen, etc. A lot of food programming is based on using cooking as a stand-in for violence in competition, and of course Food Wars! itself is in that category. Also, as food television gets more ubiquitous, the amount that most people cook is actually going down, meaning that an increasing percentage of food culture is tied up in these competitions as opposed to traditional, cooperative cooking and baking. I really doubt that Ryo’s presence is supposed to make us question the ethics of food competition television, but it’s interesting that his philosophy would’ve made no sense 20 years ago, but you can’t dismiss it so easily today. Ryo reminds me of one of those contestants on Top Chef who says “I like to use big, bold flavors,” like they deserves some kind of award for it. May as well say “I have no subtlety whatsoever, so I’m going to try to spin that like it’s style thing.”

Ryo’s big trick is to grind up a bunch of shrimp and lobster parts, including the shells, and use the resulting powder to load every component in his dish with seafood flavor. I suppose that’s clever, but aren’t the shells of crustaceans somewhat, err, indigestible? I think Heihachi and pals will be spending a lot of time in the bathroom after Battle Ramen. Otherwise, Ryo makes a French-inspired seafood dish that earns praise for avoiding any hint of “fishiness.” Now, I could be wrong, but isn’t that fishy smell/taste something that happens to fish when it starts to age, meaning the very freshest fish will never have a fishy aura? You just know that Totsuki only allows students to use fish that were caught within the last 20 minutes or something, so I don’t know if Ryo can really take much credit for keeping fishiness at bay. Anyway, the judges are impressed with Ryo’s rich seafood ramen, even though everyone who eats it reacts as though they were just punched in the face.

If the broth from your ramen doesn’t look like a shiny pool of angel’s tears, throw it out; you’re doing it wrong.

Megumi, who has grown a helluva lot of backbone, fights back with a light-broth ramen that leverages the umami punch (sigh) of dried vegetables and lesser seafood instead of shrimp and lobster. It sounds like Megumi’s ramen wouldn’t be able to compete with Ryo’s rich, luxurious broth, but the more subtle flavor of her dish has it’s own appeal. Soma says that Megumi’s trademark is bringing out the “subtle sweetness of vegetables,” but I think he’s wrong here; her special talent as a chef is her ability to take humble ingredients and make them delicious enough to compete with pricier fare.

Right before the ending credits, the show decides to pay homage to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and the two ramens become Stands, or Personas, or whatever the hell those monster thingies from JoJo’s are called. It would be one thing if it were a really quick lesson, but they really go all in with it and it’s pretty adorable– especially Badass Jojo-Style Megumi.

This would probably be funnier if I’d seen more than one episode of JJBA, but it’s still pretty funny. I like the fact that their “Stands” are actually their dishes personified.

Naturally we end on a cliffhanger, but I feel pretty sure Megumi’s got this; the problem with going for “strong flavors” all the time is that they can fatigue the palette, and it looks like the judges ate more of Megumi’s ramen than Ryo’s. I think Ryo is going to learn a Very Important Lesson about how trying to blow out everyone’s palette with dynamite is a kind of cheap way out, and then Alice will give him a really, really smug look, and then they’ll probably have sex, because I can’t imagine what else they see in each other. Or, Ryo could win just to throw us a curve ball and trigger more development for Megumi, but I’m pretty sure Ryo and Alice will still have angry sex either way.

Coming up, it looks like the next one in the Thunderdome is Erina’s mild-mannered secretary; I think her specialty is food with medicinal effects, something I find very interesting, so I’m definitely looking forward to that one.

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Karen recently informed me that the new season of shows was coming out and I should let her know if I was interested in covering any of them. I told her (in all honesty) that I hadn’t been following the schedule and was open to suggestions. She asked me what I was looking for, so I requested something light and breezy….

Ah yes, the opening scene of any cheerful and uplifting anime. Just the thing I needed to get myself into the proper, fun-in-the-sun mood for summer.

In all seriousness, I’m a fan of the 1997 series and ecstatic that Berserk is being animated again (albeit in a weird style that makes me feel nearly as uncomfortable as episode 25 of the previous series did). Episode 1 does not disappoint, but it does show that, once again, the anime will not always follow the manga. One of the things I’m most interested is how the writing will (or won’t) be interwoven with what was shown the 1997 series.

The first scene is clearly aimed as much at manga readers as first-time viewers: many important characters are revealed briefly. However, if I didn’t know better, I’d think the fine swordsman-in-black walking towards the camera was the Hawk of Darkness; odd segue. In a throwback to the 1997 series, the opening credits summarize the history between Guts, Griffith, and Casca. If I had to complain about something in this episode, it would be the decision to deform Puck’s appearance so soon after introducing him (not that I really think it should ever happen).

While left-Puck could use some pants, right-Puck seems to need a slightly larger slice of the budget (which should be available considering the money they saved on pants).

[Where…where are his BOY PARTS????-Karen]

At first glance, Puck seems out of place in what is otherwise a serious and violent setting where nothing is sacred. However, you quickly realize that Puck’s character is needed to balance against the endless waves of darkness and evil. Puck’s ability to revert to his happy-go-lucky self shortly after horrible experiences contrasts Guts’ method of dealing with adversity: be too much of a badass to ever get shaken.

One scene does show, however briefly, that there is still a shred of humanity within Guts. While it’s fun to imagine him as an unstoppable machine, he’s just a man who’s been to hell and back again (I dare say literally), and will most likely need the support of others both to help manage the road ahead and to help him with his own internal struggle. And he has a really big sword (the late in the episode reveal was a nice anime-only touch).

[Adam didn’t send in a caption for this one, so I’ll take over…except I don’t watch Berserk and I have no idea what’s going on. This looks scary; I’ll be over here watching New Game! and leave the rampaging, putrifying skeletons to you brave people. -Karen]

Puck: You should run!Guts: You’re free to go, if you want.Puck: Why? What’s the point? There are so many… you’ll get yourself killed!Guts: That’s nothing new.

And that’s Berserk. Looking forward to episode 2.

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In our first “Let’s look back and talk about an anime we all think was significant” episode, we discuss Sword Art Online, warts and all. We also bid farewell to a bunch of shows including And You Thought There Was Never A Girl Online, High School Fleet, Cerberus (sniff), Anne-Happy (sniff), and Pan de Peace (no sniff.)

…and that’s all I’ve got this week. Normally I try to tease a bunch of stuff we talked about to get you to listen to the episode, but it’s been a rough day and I just want to take a nap. Do I come to your house and say mean things about your podcast? No, I don’t, so what are you doing here? What do you mean you’re not in my house? If it’s not you, then who’s in my house? Do they have cake?

On second thought, screw this anime nonsense, I’m starting a podcast all about cake. The answer was right in front of me all along.

00:00:25 Sword Art Online discussion: what makes the show interesting, where does it falter, and why is it so hated by anime bloggers in particular?

We recorded this just before AX, thus before the announcement that the SAO TV series was continuing in Spring 2017. So if you’re wondering why we seem confused about when/if SAO was coming back, it’s because we didn’t know until a day or two later.

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Food porn is very important in my life, mostly because regular porn does nothing for me and I still need something to be deeply ashamed of. And when it comes to food porn, you can hardly do better than Food Wars!, everyone’s favorite anime where people are figuratively (and sometimes literally) assaulted by flavor. The only thing this anime is missing is an animated Anthony Bourdain to make snarky comments about overcooked veal…hmm, am I the only one who wants Anthony Bourdain: The Anime? I can’t be the only one.

Anyway, between this and the adorably delectable Sweetness and Lightning, I’m probably going to gain about 50 lbs. this season just from looking at all the animated food; I guess my perfect beach body is going to have to wait for next summer, once again.

In case you’re new to Food Wars, here’s the situation: Yukihira Soma is an upstart diner cook who lacks the fine-dining training of his fellow students at the prestigious Totsuki Academy. However, he does have the ability to make anyone who eats his food have extremely vivid hallucinations, and this capacity for mind rape, as well as an appreciation for the many charms of down-home cookin’, has gotten him pretty far in life. He’s probably going to end up marrying Nakiri Erina, known as The God Tongue for her ability to taste precisely which cave rock salt was mined in, and their kids are going to be able to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches like you wouldn’t believe. Soma is now in the finals of his school’s Autumn Elections (what it has to do with elections, I couldn’t tell you), and his first opponent is molecular gastronomy whiz kid Nakiri Alice, Erina’s half-sister.

This is what happens to people who eat Soma’s food; they are transported into The Sound of Music.

Now, I have nothing against molecular gastronomy on general principle; finding new ways to prepare and serve food is fun, and it can add a lot of creativity to cooking. However, if I’ve learned one thing from Top Chef, it’s that everyone who practices molecular gastronomy extensively becomes, for some strange reason, a complete unmitigated asshat. Everyone who uses these techniques acts like they’re the second coming of Paul Bocuse, and it’s like dude, you took lentil soup and made it into a cold gel instead of a warm liquid; that’s nice but you’re hardly curing cancer here. True to form, Alice is an insufferable snob, and based on her creepy red eyes, possibly some kind of succubus as well.

They kept this shot up for about three seconds too long and it was hella creepy. Molecular Gastronomy is for vampires.

I was surprised to see that Alice was going to be Soma’s opponent in the first round, since the first season built her up to be a pretty serious adversary; I figured he wouldn’t get to take her out until much later on. Nevertheless, the two are assigned bento as a theme, and the potential to load the box with gimmicks seems to play right into Alice’s pale hands. I think it’s cute that Soma was like “Oh cool, bento, something homey!” only to get smacked down by Erina for not realizing that bento is a Unique Food Culture and thus Serious Business. Everything is low-class chow until food snobs decide they like it, then it’s all “culture.” I’m just waiting for dunking chocolate chip cookies in apple juice to be declared cultural, because I need more encouragement.

Moving on, Alice makes a sushi bento box that looks pretty damned delicious, and makes me want some good sushi. My personal favorite kind of sushi is a shrimp tempura roll, something Alice would probably turn up her nose at, but hey, that’s why she’s the enemy. She uses more hi-tech equipment than NASA has these days, and reactions to her insanely over-thought dish are favorable. The show wants us to believe that all of these technical bells and whistles Alice uses actually enhance the flavor of food rather than just looking cool, but I have my doubts that this works in reality.

I may not like Alice, but I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t gobble this up. It’s been too long since I’ve had really good sushi. Why does it have to be so expensive?

Soma of course makes a down-home bento that has just enough sophistication to surprise the judges, but really succeeds on depth of flavor rather than flash. Interestingly, Alice pretty much says point blank “Is this the part where you’re going to tell me that food needs to have Heart?”, hanging a lampshade on where this story typically goes. However, Alice’s grandpa (who is also Heihachi Mishima of Tekken fame; there is no logic to this, he just is) points out that the issue isn’t heart, it’s understanding the essence of the dish. Soma’s bento was something that worked as a bento first and foremost, whereas Alice’s dish was just a box that happened to contain a bunch of tasty stuff. Which…kind of sounds like heart, actually. I do understand the distinction, where “heart” is a mushy feel-good concept that doesn’t really mean anything, but understanding the particular merits of a format is essential in cooking competitions. Still, Soma ends up winning because he celebrated the Soul of Bento, and Alice was too arrogant to fully embrace the format.

So…it’s all about heart, guys. Don’t listen to Heihachi when he says it isn’t. I just hope Soma finds more novel ways to defeat his opponents, because a whole bunch of episodes of “but only Soma truly CELEBRATED the form of the Turkey Pot Pie!” is going to get old. I honestly don’t remember how they dealt with this during the first season.

Next up, shy Tadakoro Megumi us up against…Goth Kid? Okay, I really don’t remember the first season all that well. I do remember Megumi butchering a giant fish that was bigger than she was, so I hope she does more of that; imagine they bring in a giant whale on a hook, and then people are like “you can’t cook a whale, they’re endangered!”, then Heihachi is like “LOL this is Japan you fools, if it’s in the ocean it goes in my face,” then Erina is like “Grandpa, put your pants back on,” and Soma is like “We used to serve whale sandwiches at my diner on Tuesdays,” and Soma’s dad is like “I’m going to let you in on a little secret, son: it was never really a diner. It was a haute cuisine restaurant in trashy diner clothing,” and Soma is like “Oh My God my whole life has been a lie.”

Ah…Food Wars! is back. It’s a good day.

Here it is, the patented Food Wars! “assaulted by the FLAVA!” reaction shot! I missed this. Alice gets one too, and hers is topless…maybe I should have screencapped that one instead.

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LB: I’m going to try not to be too harsh on the ending of Kuma Miko…. Karen: I’m going to stop you RIGHT THERE.

We bid fond and not-so-fond farewells to several Spring shows, but all is very nearly overshadowed by the 23-car-pileup that was Kuma Miko 12. Fortunately, I’m prepared with an uplifting (and exceptionally expensive) Sakamoto date to lift our spirits after a certain bear-themed anime did it’s best to bring us down; birds are involved.

Otherwise, we’re not sure if we want Joker Game to come back with a second season (“Now with actual World War II”), Flying Witch has always been about produce and will always be about produce, Hane gets assaulted by Jesus and we’re happy about it, and don’t you dare give shade to Shonen Maid online or LB will end you and everything you hold dear.

The Kizumonogatari audiobook, from Vertical Inc. features performances by Keith Silverstein, Eric Kimerer, and Cristina Vee. It’s also an audiobook for an LN, and we should probably all go out and buy it to celebrate the fact that it exists.

This is the figure I gave my husband to get him to agree to let me go on a date with Sakamoto:

This is the dress I wore on my date with Sakamoto, helpfully modeled by Icelandic singer Bjork:

I mistakenly said that Super Lovers ended at episode 11; it actually ended with 10. I don’t know why, but for some reason I was convinced there were an odd number of episodes.

The first Shonen Ai show that Lifesong watched was Love Stage.

Cerberus is another show that we haven’t dropped, but I wasn’t caught up, so we just skipped it this week. We’re going to make an effort to be more consistent next season (probably by virtue of following fewer shows in the first place….)